Frustrated by two years of bad-faith bargaining and capricious actions by the University of California administration, the union which represents nearly 2,000 lecturers in the system began striking back this fall. On Aug. 28, the UC-Berkeley chapter of the University of California Council of the American Federation of Teachers (UC-AFT) held a one-day strike. The CFT estimates that one-third to one-half of the classes on campus did not meet. Other chapters in the nine-campus system plan local actions for the fall.

At Berkeley, the lecturers' action is a measure of the university's widespread labor difficulties. UC-AFT coordinated its strike with a three-day strike conducted by the Coalition of University Employees, which represents 1,900 clerical workers. Sixty nurses affiliated with the California Nurses Association who work at the Berkeley University Health Center also held a sympathy strike. The graduate employees union, the librarians (who make up a separate unit of UC-AFT) and many students supported the striking workers by stepping onto the picket lines and attending rallies.

All the unions are looking for improvements in pay and working conditions--and signs that the university is willing to bargain seriously. Job security is a particular concern for the lecturers; the university is suddenly depriving them of the right, following six years of superior performance, to turn annual contracts into three-year contracts. Also, UC-AFT has been without a contract for two and a half years. It has filed numerous unfair labor practice complaints against the university, as have the other unions.

Jim Stockinger, a lecturer in sociology who is also a shop steward for the clerical union, spoke to AFT On Campus between rallies on Aug. 28. Hundreds of workers, students and supporters were on picket lines, he says. Elected officials, including Berkeley's mayor, a councilman and candidates for statewide office, were on hand to voice their support.

"The arrogance of the university is quite stupefying," says Stockinger, who handles grievances for CUE. "It's actually starting to get under the skin of our elected officials. The state Senate wrote a letter to the university asking for an explanation of [its] labor policies."

A week before the strike, the California Public Employment Relations Board released its decision on an unfair labor practice that UC-AFT filed months ago. The union charged that the university had unilaterally increased the employee cost of healthcare benefits, including co-pays. Such increases are by statute a mandatory subject of bargaining, the union argued. The PERB agreed.

The UC-AFT's fall semester strategy emerged after the union held a secret mail ballot this summer. The ballot showed that 88 percent of the instructors supported taking job actions, including withholding their teaching and other services.

The lecturers teach 45 percent of the classes systemwide, many at the freshman level, says Kevin Roddy, president of the UC-AFT. They do work that is similar to that of permanent tenured faculty--advising students, serving on committees, keeping up with research, writing--but are paid only about half as much.

One of the biggest issues for the lecturers is job security. They are hired on annual contracts. In their sixth year, they are eligible to work under three-year renewable contracts. Recently, however, Roddy says, the university has been letting lecturers go before their six years are up--no matter how superior their skills might be.

The UC-AFT has filed an unfair labor practice. "This is a critical ULP," says Roddy, who has taught at UC-Davis for 26 years. "It shows the larger dimension of bad faith and disrespect in the way we are treated." [Barbara McKenna]

[August 29, 2002]